In Medical School they teach us a lot of things...how to diagnose a perforated artery as opposed to a perforated aorta; the likelihood survival of a 55 year old male suffering a severe case of gallstones with cancer of the stomach lining. But nowhere in the books is there a guideline on how to have a life while being a surgeon or where the life of leisure fits into the "cut, cure and suture" method. But then, had they said "don't sleep with an attending on the night before your first day as an intern" I'm not sure I would have listened.
The alarm clock went off; I rolled over and took a deep breath, 4:30am. It was nothing unusual, it's not like the past twelve months as an intern have not made me accustomed to the early starts and the long hours. As a resident, however, it would be nice to feel like those twelve months as an intern have earned me at least one sleep in. I rolled over and smiled, trying my hardest not to wake him, I crawled out of bed as lightly as I could, but not a moment too soon Izzie burst through the door.
"Oh my god Mer, have you got a spare undershirt?"
I looked at her and sternly pressed my finger to my lips, pointing with the other finger at Derek who was now, inevitably awake.
"Oooh, that's right, McDreamy lives here now..." Izzie laughed to herself as she snatched up my ironed, set out undershirt which I had every intention of wearing today.
"Iz..." I called after her.
"You've got plenty!" Izzie responded from halfway down the hall.
I sighed and turned to look at Derek, all in all, he looked as though he'd had around about 3 hours sleep following a split 30 hour shift the previous day.
"I thought it was McSteamy..." he chuckled.
I laughed, leaned down and kissed him.
"You wish..."
"Or is it...McSexy?" Derek stirred and I knew that this was only going to amuse me more; distract me to a point where I know how hard it will be to get out of bed. He put his hands around my waist and leaned up to rest his chin on my shoulder where I could feel his lips gently touching my skin, ever so lightly and pulling me down to the bed ever so slowly that I knew an extra ten minutes wouldn't make much of a difference...
...Correction...an extra half an hour.
"Oh my god I am so late!" I raced around desperately trying to find clothes, a bra...which had to be replaced with a singlet, and an undershirt. "God! Why did Izzie need my shirt today?"
Derek sat there on the edge of the bed, only a sheet wrapped around his waist, looking ever so sexy and dreamy that I knew one more look at him would make me lose my mind.
"You know, you are so amazingly adorable when you're frantic." He said smiling.
"Derek! I have interns...clueless interns who will be waiting for me, a boss in my bed and..." I just remembered something else. "...And I have no shoes!"
"Mer!" Izzie called. "Come on Tinkerbelle you and McDreamy can have McSex later, we have to go!"
"I need shoes Iz!" I called back to her, utterly embarrassed by my new nickname, strangely amused by her use of the "Mc's" and really struggling to find my shoes.
"Meredith, we are leaving!" Alex yelled from the kitchen.
"We're taking your car for a joy ride!" Izzie added.
I turned and saw the last resort for a pair of shoes, my new designer ballet flats; I raced over slipped them on, dashed back to kiss Derek and ran to the door.
Izzie stared at my shoes.
"Nice shoes..." she commented.
"Izzie, right now, no comment!" I told her.
5am at Seattle Grace on a Saturday morning is never easy, over night emergencies of people coming in from bars with fractured skulls and bottles smashed in their face. I took a look around at the chaos; reminding me that this is what I am here for, this is my life.
"Dr. Grey?"
I turned around and faced Dr. Bailey.
"Yes, Dr. Bailey?"
Bailey looked at me intently, she could see I'd had next to no sleep, her face travelled down; staring at my creased uniform and her gaze fell to my brightly coloured shoes.
"Dr. Grey, if you and Dr. Shepherd are going to continue these sleepovers at your house, I suggest you prepare yourself a little better when you come to work for me." Bailey said with her normal sarcastic and stern tone.
I nodded.
"Now, if you don't mind, there is a patient in trauma 2 complaining of a headache due to the beer bottle that was smashed into the back of his skull, I need you to assess any broken glass fragments that may still be in his hair and then I would like you to work in the clinic today, take your interns and I would also like you to take the other Dr. Grey from Yang."
I froze.
"I...uh...you want me to take Lexie to the clinic?"
"Yes, I do," Bailey answered folding her arms. "Now, do you have a problem with that or would you indeed prefer to go and see if the patient in trauma 1 is suffering from a bowel obstruction?"
At that moment, staring up some guys butt would have been my best option, but at the risk of being tortured by Bailey all day, I chose my sister.
I turned and looked at my interns.
"Okay, so let's go on our rounds people and then we will head to the clinic." I said.
Just at that moment, Cristina walked past me.
"Cristina!"
She turned and looked at my shoes as her first point of interest.
I snapped my fingers.
"Cristina, my face, up here!" I directed her vision to my face. "Now, can you please tell Bailey that you need Lexie and there is no way I can take her..."
Cristina laughed.
"Actually, I don't need her..." she turned to Lexie. "Three!"
Lexie turned and looked at me with a hopeful smile
"You'll be working with Dr. Grey in the clinic today, now off you go!"
A few hours, seven suture wounds, four code blues and two DOA's later, I wasn't feeling so great, I knew it was coffee time. I walked into the lounge and came face to face with Derek.
"Hi," I said with a smile that looked less than convincing.
"Hey," he said. "You okay?" I could tell I hadn't convinced him.
"Yeah, yeah, just a little off..." I said.
For a second I saw my vision blur and I felt a little faint.
"Meredith?" Derek grabbed my arm.
I stabled myself.
"Yeah, I'm fine..." I took a sip of my coffee just as my pager went off. "It's Bailey,"
Moments later I was in OR1, I had to scrub in on a very simple aneurysm clipping; I had my interns minus Lexie and Derek was operating.
"Okay Dr. Grey, can you please hold the clamp for me..." Derek looked at me with concern as my response was less than what he anticipated. "Dr. Grey...Dr. Grey!"
I dropped the clamp and fell to the ground.